The invention relates to magnetometers or magnetic field sensors and, more specifically, comprises a simple, small, lightweight, low-cost, and low-power-consumption sensor that utilizes the Lorentz force to measure vector magnetic fields.
There is increasing interest in the development of miniature magnetometers for mapping magnetic fields in space and in industrial and environmental applications. The trend is constantly toward smaller size, lower power consumption, and lower cost for similar performance. Toward this end, recent developments have included the use of piezoresistive cantilevers (originally developed for atomic force and scanning tunneling microscopy) and .mu. magnetometers (based on electron tunneling effects).
The problem with the above devices is that they require, at least in some stages of their assembly, extensive and intricate processing. Furthermore, their sensitivities, defined as the minimum detectable field change, are generally in the range of 1 mT to 1 .mu.T. Therefore, there remains a need for magnetometers with increased sensitivity in which size, power and cost are reduced.